While COVID-19 (coronavirus) has put the entire sports landscape on a momentary hiatus, the Lamar University athletics’ coaching staff and others like it are still in thick of recruiting as they creatively make up for the inability of in-person contact recruiting.

NCAA’s mandatory dead period, a decision made as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, prohibits collegiate athletic programs from scheduling in-person contact with recruits (on-campus and off-campus visits), was extended through May 31 after the original dead period was supposed to be lifted Wednesday.

For Lamar University football coach Blane Morgan, an in-person contact recruiting moratorium was not the start the first-year coach was hoping to have.

“Is it ideal? No, it’s not — not by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan said.

In an ideal world, Blane would’ve been preparing his current roster for its annual spring game on April 25 — a game that was canceled over a month ago — and preparing his newly formed coaching staff on which prospective recruits to target for the following year’s class.

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But Morgan isn’t concerned with what he can’t control.

“We are trying to make the most of it,” Morgan said. “We have to have perspective. There are a lot of people in a world of hurt right now.”

Now, Morgan is adjusting to the new recruiting landscape like many other coaches across the country. He admits that in a time where everyone is using video telecommunication platforms like Zoom and Facetime to communicate with recruits, finding creative ways to stand out can sometimes be a challenge.

Morgan and the rest of Cardinals’ football coaching staff are using social media platforms like Twitter as a key tool to allow current players to promote what Lamar has to offer to potential recruits and inform them which of Morgan’s coaches will be in charge of a specific region in Texas.

“We don’t want a kid to signing based on a cool thing we did,” Morgan said. “The biggest thing you can do is be genuine and have prospects understand that.”

Lamar head football coach Blane Morgan talks about his first signing class at a signing day press conference on February 5, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

Lamar head football coach Blane Morgan talks about his first signing class at a signing day press conference on February 5, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

Photo: Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

Photo: Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

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Lamar head football coach Blane Morgan talks about his first signing class at a signing day press conference on February 5, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

Lamar head football coach Blane Morgan talks about his first signing class at a signing day press conference on February 5, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

In addition to social media, Morgan said high school coaches and game film are as vital as ever to help recruits, since summer football camps where the Lamar staff would scout recruits in competitive settings could be limited because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Game film is important and without the personal contact, you’re going to put a lot of weight into film,” Morgan said. “Game film is going to be much more important especially for QBs (quarterback) where you need to see in-game decision-making.”

However, Morgan is not the only coach on Lamar’s campus who will be relying on video during the NCAA’s dead period. Lamar baseball head coach Will Davis is another proponent of using video with one caveat — not taking too much stock in highlight videos. Instead, he’s relying on videos showing actions on the field like fielding ground balls among other skills.

Davis said the highlight videos often are compiled of at-bats from bad video angles, usually from the stands.

Normally, at this point in the year, Davis would’ve been heavily recruiting junior college baseball players. While there is no replacement for watching a player in person, Davis said video services allow his staff to evaluate the potential recruit from all the necessary camera angles to capture the most complete possible picture with the given circumstances.

Both the men’s and women’s basketball coaching staffs at Lamar have utilized Facetime to keep in contact with recruits. Women’s head coach Aqua Franklin went as far as showing parts of the campus that recruits cannot see for themselves during the dead period.

“On Facetime, we are able to walk the campus and show them,” Franklin said.“I think it is today’s world people like to Facetime. It has made coaches comfortable with that and I think it’s a great thing to add to what we’ve done in the past.”

“When you recruit guys, you are building that personal relationship, and it is especially important when you can’t meet with them face-to-face,” Price said. “I have to make a good first impression using Facetime or Zoom.”

While the uncertainty of when in-person recruiting will return, many of Lamar’s coaches are confident they will be able to host on-campus visits to display all that it has to offer and start building relationships with those future recruits.

“I think we will be able to bring kids onto campus eventually,” Morgan said. “There is just something about creating a relationship and shaking a kid’s hand — call me old school. There is something that I love about it. It will be a great day when that happens.”